According to the official Kane and Lynch website, the game won five-star reviews from two major gaming publications. Except that it didn't.

At the videogame's official website, viewers opting for the high-bandwith variant of the site were treated to a Flash-based introduction, which, according to gaming website Kotaku.com, featured heavily-edited snippets, or snippets taken entirely out of context from the review.

The blurbs, taken form Game Informer and GameSpy, were presented with five stars each, indicating those publications gave the game the highest of ratings.

In reality, however, GameSpy awarded the game only three stars. Game Informer, which does not provide review verdicts in a star format, awarded the game a seven out of 10.

Both verdicts coincide with the verdict former Gamespot editor Jeff Gerstmann gave the game, shortly before being fired.

Also misleading is the company's use of a GameSpy snippet juxtaposed to the stars in the first place, as it indicates the text comes from the review.

In fact, the line - "It's the best emulation of being in the midst of a Michael Mann movie we've ever seen" - was pulled from a preview of the game.

As of 11:00 p.m. EST on December 4, the Flash animation had been amended with the stars removed but the text still in place.

Damn it Eidos, this is getting sad. Just give it up already, you aren't going to save this game. The best you can do instead of concentrating so many resources to PR is directing more game developers into Kane and Lynch 2. Seriously, make a good game and we'll forget about the bad one. It works.